In this report, Vanguard’s Law & Human Rights examines the present composition of the Supreme Court and the extent of compliance by the appointing authorities with the provisions of sections 230(2), 231(3) and 14(2) of the 1999 Constitution in the appointment of justices to the apex bench between 1999 and 2023 with a survey of stakeholders on the concomitant impact of past appointments on the quality of judgments emanating from the apex court and its public image in the last 24 years with recommendations on how about a dozen vacant seats at the Supreme Court bench should be filled in the next few months .

By Ise-Oluwa Ige 

Background FactsOn October 27, 2023, a retiring justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Dattijo Muhammad raised the alarm in Abuja that with his exit, the number of justices serving on the apex court had dropped to 10, it’s lowest in the contemporary history of the court. He spoke at the valedictory court session organised by the Supreme Court of Nigeria (SCN) in his honour during which he also raised a flag on a number of corruption-related issues in the judiciary which he said required urgent attention.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola had himself at another forum last year, disclosed that the apex court has been battling with workload crisis arising from manpower shortage, explaining that the situation gets worse for the third arm of government because in every little disagreement, Nigerians rush to court and in every lost case, they rush to appeal even up to the Supreme Court, no matter how little the issue might be.  

He said that alone, had obviously accounted for the several appeals pending in the Supreme Court, adding that though the court receives scathing criticisms from members of the public over its over-bloated docket, yet the institution is neither in any position to regulate case inflow to the court nor has the supernatural powers to attend to all in one-fell-swoop.

Whereas, Section 230 (2) of the 1999 Constitution allows the sitting President to appoint a CJN and other justices of the Supreme Court not exceeding 21, the highest number of justices appointed to the Supreme Court ever was 20 since the constitution was promulgated into law.

Specifically, that history was made on November 6, 2020 when eight newly appointed Justices of the Supreme Court were sworn into office, upping its membership from 12 to 20.

Vanguard reports that all through the tenure of Justice Muhammad Lawal Uwais between 1995 and 2006 and the first quarter of 2020 during the tenure of the immediate past Chief Justice Tanko Muhammad (2019-2022), the highest number of justices appointed to the apex bench was 17.

However, most times, the number of justices on the Supreme Court oscillated between 11 and 14 all through the 1995 and 2022 legal years.

Besides, while Section 14 (2) of the 1999 Constitution requires that the composition of the Supreme Court like all agencies of the government of the federation, shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of the country, as at today, the Supreme Court is presently composed of 10 justices from only four geo-political zones of the country

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